“This is not a new problem for journalists, or others whose business is providing or sharing information. In another era, burglars would read the obituary pages so they could target the homes of people who had just died,” Stephen Engelberg, ProPublica’s editor-in-chief, wrote in a statement.

“As a news organization dedicated to pursuing stories with ‘moral force,’ we feel we also have an obligation to look hard at possible misuses of our journalism,” he added.

The database was set up in 2013 to track what types of drugs were being prescribed by Medicare doctors.

“We continue to believe that Prescriber Checkup provides significant and beneficial insights into prescribing patterns — insights that can help patients, practitioners, regulators and a variety of other users,” he said.

Adding a warning about the dangers of narcotics on any pages mentioning them may help, Engelberg said.